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ONGOING
CORE HOUSES
EVERYWHERE

Designed in Collaboration with Mobile Office Architects

There is a persistent allure to prefabrication in housing, with the potential for economies of scale, reductions in waste, accelerated timelines, quality control, and cost savings. Yet, these approaches tend to fall into two categories: 1) one-size-fits-all generic pre-determined spaces (with a few options to choose from), indifferent to place and resistant to adaptation; or 2) fully custom houses that fail to capture the benefits, economic and otherwise, of standardization. Instead, The Core system is built around the standardization of the house’s essential technical components and costliest finish components, prefabricated into a shippable frame, ready for rapid deployment to the site. Without the burden of this more complicated site work, the job of place-making is simplified significantly, allowing for broader, less costly, exploration of enclosure, environment, and social arrangement.

There are 3 Core types: V001 with a single bathroom, V002 with two bathrooms, and V003 with a vertical stack for 2 bathrooms across two levels. These Cores can be deployed in a variety of ways to create a multitude of different spatial arrangements. The base V001 Core consists of: a primary kitchen cabinetry wall with plumbing, power, and venting functions; a mechanical closet and ceiling plenum that includes power distribution, domestic water heating system, the home’s HVAC systems, and laundry equipment; and a fully fitted bathroom.  Detailed planning and economies of reproduction facilitate the core’s systems to be fit in a compact package.  The V002 and V003 core configurations add expansion of facilities outward and upward.

The benefits of the densification of the building systems extend beyond construction efficiencies, as the careful arrangement of domestic service spaces choregraph living arrangements that are less bloated, less reliant on dedicated circulation space, and more integrated with one another.










ONGOING










COREHOUSES










EVERYWHERE

Designed in Collaboration with Mobile Office Architects

There is a persistent allure to prefabrication in housing, with the potential for economies of scale, reductions in waste, accelerated timelines, quality control, and cost savings. Yet, these approaches tend to fall into two categories: 1) one-size-fits-all generic pre-determined spaces (with a few options to choose from), indifferent to place and resistant to adaptation; or 2) fully custom houses that fail to capture the benefits, economic and otherwise, of standardization. Instead, The Core system is built around the standardization of the house’s essential technical components and costliest finish components, prefabricated into a shippable frame, ready for rapid deployment to the site. Without the burden of this more complicated site work, the job of place-making is simplified significantly, allowing for broader, less costly, exploration of enclosure, environment, and social arrangement.